Queens Tribune
 
....January 22, 12:58 PM
 
 
 
February Special Election: Candidates File Petitions, Finance Claims As They Seek To Fill Council Seats

Joe Addabbo
By Brad Groznik and Michael Lanza

Let the objections begin.

With their petitions signed and submitted and finances filed, 13 candidates in the 32nd and 21st City Council District special elections are enduring disputes as they wait with bated breath to see who made the cut.

The Feb. 24 non-partisan run-off will fill the 32nd and 21st Council District seats vacated by State Senators Joe Addabbo (D-Howard Beach) and Hiram Monserrate (D-Jackson Heights) in November.

The special election winners will hold the vacant seats until November, when they will run again to begin their own four-year City Council terms.



32nd District

The race to represent the 32nd has already drawn a crowd – seven South Queens residents have set their sights on the vacant seat.

Glenn DiResto, a retired New York City Police Department lieutenant; Frank Gulluscio, Lew Simon and Geraldine Chapey, all Democratic district leaders; Eric Ulrich, a Republican district leader; Michael Ricatto, a Republican business owner and political activist; and Sam Di Bernardo, a 74-year-old former teacher, have all announced their intent to run.

Ricatto, who resumed his candidacy after a brief suspension Jan. 8, when his campaign vehicle struck and killed a 9-year-old boy in Ozone Park, leads the pack in funds, according to the New York City Campaign Finance Board. He raised $98,085 as of last Thursday, but spent nearly all of it – $96,190.

Trailing were Gulluscio and Ulrich, with $40,750 and $37,213 respectively. Gulluscio had only spent $5,872 as of Thursday’s filing deadline, making him the leader in available cash with $34,878.

Ulrich claimed a dubious first: least available funds. He spent nearly $10,000 more than his campaign raised.

Both Simon and DiBernardo failed to file their finance reports by the deadline, according to the board.

A source close to the petitioning process said DiBernardo’s run is likely over – he submitted less than 300 of the approximately 1,100 signatures required.

The source also said that three other candidates were also in jeopardy – Ulrich, Gulluscio and DiResto collected well below the safe threshold of signatures.

Gulluscio started late and collected slightly more than 2,000 signatures, the source said, while Ulrich and DiResto collected well under 2,000.

“The normal rule is you want to collect triple what you need, anybody will tell you that,” the source said. “Out of triple of what you collect, two-thirds are going be good. Out of the two thirds you’ll have a fall off – you gotta figure 10 to 20 percent at least.”

Petitions are most commonly invalidated when the signatures are illegible, do not belong to a registered voter from the district or when the same voter signs multiple petitions.

The source said that Chapey led in signatures, collecting nearly 3,800, while Simon and Ricatto trailed close behind, collecting more than 3,000 each.

 
 

Top Row (l. to r.) Eric Ulrich, Lew Simon, Francisco Moya, Geraldine Chapey

Bottom Row (l. to r.) George Dixon, Julissa Ferreras, Eduardo Giraldo, Frank Gulluscio

21st District

In the 21st council district race, six candidates have begun campaigning to fill the vacant seat but not all of them are raising money according to the campaign finance board.

After the Jan. 15 filing Julissa Ferreras was on top with $50,772 in the bank. Francisco Moya raised $38,518, Eduardo Giraldo had $19,600, George Dixon had $11,545, Angel Del Villar had $2,977 and Carlos Pena told the board he had nothing.

“I am excited that our strong grassroots support will give our ‘United We Can’ campaign the fuel we need to spread our ‘United We Can’ message of smaller class sizes, development that benefits the entire community and good public services to keep our neighborhood strong across the district,” Ferreras said in a statement.

Ferreras’s campaign has won key endorsements from the Working Families Party, the New York Hotel and Motel Trades Council and UFCW Local 1500.

At a candidate forum Jan.5, Ferreras, Monserrate’s former chief of staff, defended her role as head of the nonprofit group, Libre, which received $400,000 in public money from Monserrate’s discretionary funds.

“As soon as I’m contacted by any agency or district attorney or whatever it is that people are saying out there that has contacted me, I will be more than happy to answer any and every question to the best of my ability,” she said.

Moya said he would match Ferreras fund-raising by Friday – a feat he has accomplished in a much shorter time than Ferreras, who has been campaigning since early last year.

“I think people see who the likely winner will be,” he said in reference to his quick fundraising.

A life-long resident of Corona, Moya was endorsed by U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-Ridgewood). He started the Corona Gardens Neighborhood Association and worked alongside David Paterson.

For Giraldo, raising the most money is not an indication of who the winner will be.

“This is a short campaign,” he said. “If we use [the money] smart, I think we would be OK.”

A local businessman and former president of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Queens, Giraldo said improving the local economy was his highest priority and he supports the development of Willets Point.

“As a community we need to be involved in the Willets Point project because it means concrete jobs,” he said.

Also running is Dixon, a local district leader, who said he was not looking forward to the impact the Willets Point project will have on a community.

“I don’t want that across from my street,” he said at a Jan. 5 forum.

His exception was if the project employed local people as much as possible. If elected, he would use his position at City Hall to ensure that hiring remained local.
Angel Del Villar, a Corona lawyer, and Carlos Pena could not be reached for comment.